Farsighted Fly Girl

Deep in the Panamanian rain forest, on the shores of the Chagres River, an Embera Indian Village welcomes visitors interested in learning about their centuries-old traditions. We had traveled in a hand-carved canoe,  and scaled makeshift bridges to reach the village. Before I entered into the village's circle of thatched roof huts and glimpsed the laughing children and heard the flute trills of their instruments, I knew that I wanted to connect with the Embera. After a demonstration of cooking, plant medicine and weaving techniques, I requested a traditional tattoo. A village's elder was enlisted to do the honor for me. The Embera paint their bodies with the juice of the jagua  plant. The black etchings are semi-permanent tattoos that last up to 3 weeks. The elder wiped the sunscreen off my arm and pressed sharply into my skin with the tip of a bamboo stick. He slowly created my design, scrawling the lines carefully. Each symbol has a specific meaning and I...

If the eyes are the window to the soul, then children are the mirror for the soul of a culture. Wherever I travel, observing children supplies me with more information about a place than any guidebook. The Embera are one of 7 indigenous cultures in Panama and they maintain traditional villages with raised, thatched-roof huts with no walls. Peeking out from one of the huts, I watched children play in the rain. No adult cautioned them or called them into a hut, as they squealed with the delight of feeling the raindrops splatter on their little bodies. The joy and unrestricted freedom to play and explore (We caught a few peering through a hole in the village outhouse as we took turns using rain forest facilities.) that these children expressed reveals a lot about Embera culture. They are clearly valued and encouraged to discover the world around them. Although the children only spoke their native dialect, they communicated their happiness to me very strongly.

Casco Viejo is a UNESCO World Heritage site in Panama with an interesting history. In 1671, when notorious pirate Henry Morgan looted and destroyed the old city, Panama Viejo, the residents decided to build a safer and easier to defend city. They created Casco Viejo, which translates to "old helmet," a maze-like, walled city filled with elegant 16th and 17th century Spanish colonial architecture. Some locals don't even like to call it Casco Viejo because of the association of discarding old things. Instead, they prefer Casco Antiguo, because antiques are valued and preserved. Whatever the name, I found the neighborhood to be inviting and colorful, crammed with history and art. I visited at night, when the area comes alive with music and nightlife but that didn't stop me from noting these charming murals. They appear to be painted by school children, documenting the neighborhood's cultural institutions like the Panama Canal Museum. This mural welcomes...

The Panama Canal may be the most famous structure in Panama but the notorious Diablico Sucio represents the most familiar cultural figure. The name translates to dirty devil and I met this character when I visited Casco Viejo, the old colonial section of Panama City. Diablico Sucio also dates back to colonial times, when villagers, especially from Los Santos, would construct a costume from a blanket painted with red and black stripes made with coal and annatto seeds. The dance connected with the character would make the dancers sweaty, blurring the coal and annotto so that it resembled dirt, hence the name. Diablico Sucio  is associated with the religious feast of Corpus Christi. The dancers use elaborate footwork, castanets, bells and a walking stick to symbolize the vivid battle between good and evil. During carnaval, these devils roam the streets and whip revelers with the walking stick unless they pay them or carry their own walking stick for protection. A UNES...